Insomnia

Insomnia is set in the town of Derry, Maine, which is also the setting for several of King’s other works, most notably the 1986 novel It. Though characters from the earlier novel play a minor role in Insomnia, King’s choice to revisit the town reflects one of the characteristic elements of his oeuvre. King grew up in several small towns across his native state of Maine, which informs the social lens behind his stories and novels.

King exclusively writes his characters into similar settings, beginning with his debut novel, Carrie (1974), which is set in the unincorporated village of Chamberlain. For his second novel, King experimented with the invention of his own town, creating the titular setting for ‘Salem’s Lot (1975). Since then, King has reshaped the geography of Maine, drawing new towns on the map that include Haven from The Tommyknockers (1987) and Chester’s Mill from Under the Dome (2009). Among King’s invented towns, the one his novels most often revisit is Castle Rock, which first appeared in The Dead Zone (1979) and is based on his hometown of Durham.

Heavily inspired by King’s town of residence in Bangor, Maine, Derry closely follows Castle Rock as a favored setting, largely because of the role the town’s history plays in It. It reveals that Derry is the nesting place of an ancient shapeshifting entity that feeds on the fear of human beings, primarily children, to survive. Before the novel begins in the late 1950s, the entity has already claimed hundreds of victims and is implied to have been responsible for the disappearance of township settlers in the 18th century, as well as the deaths of over 80 children at an ironworks explosion in 1906. The novel extends to the mid-1980s and the final defeat of the entity coincides with a devastating storm that nearly wipes Derry off the map. This history suggests that Derry is intrinsically tied to fear, and that the town thrives on the perpetuation of fear. Fear thus plays a huge role in Ralph’s experiences in the town in Insomnia, creating a sense of continuity in both theme and setting between the novels.